Heliskier Returns Saturday
Just how good is Heliskier? We could find out in Saturday’s seventh race, the $50,000 10,000 Lakes Stakes, perhaps his toughest test ever. Heliskier is trained by Canterbury’s perennial leading conditioner Mac Robertson. As a two year old, Heliskier broke his maiden in hand and galloped on the Northern Lights Futurity field, winning by 10 […]
Canterbury Inside the Numbers
Live racing at Canterbury Park starts Friday, May 17. Optimism is high for the 2013 season with full barns on the backside and a higher purse structure in place. This should be a good formula for larger fields and more competitive racing, which equals better opportunities for large payoffs! Let’s look back at the 2012 […]
Any Day Now…
The Canterbury Park stable area was scheduled to open Monday with the training track opening Tuesday. Mother Nature dropped the hammer this week in the form of a snowy mess, necessitating a delay to the scheduled opening. The backside will open April 19, the training track April 20 and the main track April 22 as […]
Overheard Last Night at The Local
“You don’t forget how to win The Derby” in reference to The Coach D. Wayne Lukas’ chances come the first Saturday in May. Not exactly sure how many pints had been downed at that point but the notion does make some sense. The pressing question for this week is: Do you forget how to win The […]
New Attendance Record Set and Handle Up 25%
Just like that it was over. A horse named Vini Vidi Vinci won the 11th race on Monday, bringing the 2012 live racing season to a close. The name is a corruption of that note of humility in Latin from Julius Cesar, who proclaimed that “I came, I saw, I conquered.” Vini, Vidi Vinci did, […]
Record Crowd of 17,053 Enjoys 2012 Festival
The Festival of Champions began 20 years ago as a rebuke to track management at the time, as a demonstration by horsemen that the Ladbroke Corp.’s marketing strategies and ideas about live racing were wrong. They’ve been proving that nearly every year of live racing since, often most notably on Festival day, but never quite […]
Wearing Many Hats & Cleaning Many Silks
It’s a wonder that Nate Quinonez doesn’t dream in Technicolor given the kaleidoscope world of hues and paint palate combinations that inhabit his life much of the week. For 2 ½ hours or more before first post each day, and at periods throughout the card, Quinonez is occupied with sorting and cleaning the correct silks […]
Oaks and Derby Showcase Superstars
The horses who won these races in years past are part of a pantheon of Minnesota colts and fillies whose names still resonate with the state’s long-time racing fans. Among the fillies there was Princess Elaine, Northbound Pride, Argenti and Glitter Star, the latter of which will join the Canterbury Park Hall of Fame on […]
Heliskier Headlines $65,000 Minnesota Derby
Heliskier, an undefeated Minnesota-bred 3-year-old gelding, headlines the $65,000 Minnesota Derby Saturday at Canterbury Park. Named Canterbury’s Champion Two-Year-Old in 2011, Heliskier won the $55,000 Northern Lights Futurity last year and this summer has dominated in all three starts including the $50,000 Victor S. Myers Stakes and the $35,000 MTA Stallion Laddie (video below). [youtube […]
Family Ties Sustain Bell
Two of the most visible youngsters at Canterbury Park this summer have been the daughters of riders Derek Bell and Adolfo Morales. Hailey Bell, 9, and Ximena Morales, 11, have been joined at the hip for much of the meet. They often appear in tandem in front of the jockeys’ lounge, departing after receiving their […]